Clean and Jerk Complex Fun

So I have generally been trying to partition my training into a conditioning component (typically CrossFit or endurance work depending on what's on my barbell programming) and weightlifting.  Today, I worked on endurance drills... after a general warmup, it was six rounds of three minute runs with a 45 second break in between.  Suffice to say, I was thankful that I did NOT get lost in the vicinity of the gym and downtown!  Suddenly, I understood why Coach J made a comment to the effect of it being a *tough* workout especially in the heat and humidity.  He's a tough cookie to have done it in the mid-day heat versus the late afternoon I did this!

And then there was the clean & jerk training I did afterwards... suffice to say, I'm VERY thankful for Coach J even if he generally hung back because he was split between a whole bunch of athletes with varying levels of competencies and needs, including a little kid whose focus makes mine look halfway decent and two adults with some pretty significant injuries to work with and around.  He's amazing at giving me very useful cues as well as reminding me when to stop and regroup.  I tend NOT to remember when to stop while trying to hit perfection or at least as close as I can get to it.

Apparently with cleans, I'm not supposed to pull as high as I do with the snatch, and I'm actually supposed to wait a bit longer before I initiate the second pull. The second pull actually begins at the "pocket" and apparently is supposed to be much shorter and more abrupt than its snatch counterpart.  And then there's my jerk... I've opted to focus on squat jerk because it's got far fewer degrees of freedom, which increases the probability of a long career in weightlifting and is actually more appropriate for me given my build.  For the record, fatigued jerking is brutal, but it is a reality, especially if my lifts are relatively close to each other, like they were at X3 back in September.  Semi-visible and semi-audible is Coach J, who is floating between multiple athletes, giving verbal cues, and/or doing his own lifts with the class to keep his own skills sharp. 

And then there were the clean pulls to help me with my timing and positioning issues.  These are typically relatively heavy, and Coach J was trying to get me to emphasize moving my knees out of the way quickly as well as getting my chest up, which in turn gets my knees back under the bar and maintaining balance. And then there's the issue of timing my second pull, which is supposed to happen relatively high up, but I tend to fire off way too early, which then hinders my ability to drop under the bar properly.